When saving the contents of the currently viewed web page completely, browsers create a HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) file of the page itself and data of external contents of the page that are referenced in the HTML file. A person who received the file and data, can view and print the web page by using a browser. In other words, if the person wants to view and print the web page properly from the file and data, a browser needs to be installed in a computing device of the person.
In view of that, there have been developed tools capable of saving web pages as PDF (Portable Document Format) files so as to allow a user of a computing device in which no browser is installed, to view and print web pages. For example, the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. is known, where Apple is a registered trademark or trademark of Apple Inc. in the United States and/or other countries, and iOS is a trademark or registered trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Mobile computing devices running iOS 11, which was released on Sep. 20, 2017, or the successor of iOS 11, each has the capability of creating a PDF file from a web page in a browser (also referred to as the PDF creation capability). With this capability, users of the mobile computing devices running iOS 11 or later can save the entire web page displayed on the respective mobile computing devices as one PDF file that presents a one-page document reproducing the contents of the web page in the same layout as those displayed on the respective mobile computing devices.
In conventional print processing of a web page by using a PDF file created by the above-described PDF creation capability, because the PDF file presents a one-page document reproducing the whole web page, the page of the document is reduced in size so as to fit onto a certain-size sheet of paper loaded in a printer (for example, A4-size printing paper) and is printed on the sheet of paper. When the page of the document is very long in size, the contents of the printed page become extremely small so that a viewer of the printed page cannot read the contents, and the printed page is useless.
In view of that, methods of dividing a document into page pieces and printing the page pieces separately on several sheets of paper (so-called, poster printing) have been proposed. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (JP-A) No. 2008-210046 discloses the following print control unit. The hardware processor of the print control unit inputs an image for printing, specifies the output size of the image, and specifies the size of printing media to be used for printing the image. The hardware processor then transforms the input image so as to fit to the output size. The hardware processor then uses the output size and the printing media size to calculate information about the way to divide the output-size plane. The hardware processor then uses the transformed image and the calculation result, to create data for printing the transformed image over several sheets of printing media.
As an example of methods of printing multiple pages per sheet of paper (so-called N-in-one or N-up printing), JP-A No. 2008-035482 discloses the following image processing apparatus. The image processing apparatus includes an image processor configured to generate print data on the basis of document data that are input; and a printing unit configured to print the print data on printing paper. In response to receiving instructions to print multiple pages of the document data per sheet of printing paper, the image processor obtains the magnification ratio of an area for printing one page of the document data with respect to the whole printable area of a sheet of printing paper, by using the number of pages to be printed on each sheet of printing paper, the width of margins set to surround the pages to be printed on each sheet of printing paper, and the size of the whole printable area. According to the magnification ratio, the image processor generates print data.
By using the poster printing, printers can print a one-long-page document over several sheets of printing paper, by dividing the long page into multiple page pieces. Thereby, users of the printers can obtain a printed document in the original size on a web browser or obtain a printed document in large size so that the users can easily read the contents of the printed document. However, when such a one-long-page document is printed in large size, just by using the poster printing, an increased number of sheets of printing paper are necessary for printing the document, and blank spaces appear on respective printed sheets. When such a one-long-page document is printed in large size so that the width of the page of the document fit to the width of sheets of paper, it results in that the contents of the printed document become too large, which makes the printed document less readable against the purpose of the printing.
On the other hand, by using the way to print multiple pages per sheets (N-in-one or N-up printing) together with the poster printing, printers can print a one-long-page document over a reduced number of sheets of printing paper, which is economical. In this combination printing, the page of the document is divided into multiple page pieces and a certain number of the page pieces are printed on each sheet of printing paper with the page pieces being spaced out. Therefore, the end part of each page piece in the printed sheets is hardly recognized by readers, and the contents of the printed document are separated into multiple pieces by spaces on each printed sheet, which makes the printed document less readable. Further, in the printed document given by the combination printing, the order of the page pieces printed on each sheet is hardly recognized by readers, which also makes the printed document less readable.